South Africa's cellular operator Vodacom offers 22 mobile television channels, according to a recent article in Variety, but you'd be confused by looking at its Vodafone live! Web site.
The mobile TV section (see above) says, "On the 1st of March, 2006 Mobile TV goes commercial. With over 14 channels, exclusive content and customer friendly pricing this is sure to be one of the hottest Vodafone live! services."
When you read this you can see the problems. Firstly, "goes commercial" implies the service hasn't started. How about changing it to "went commercial," or "was launched" or, simply, "started"? (Yes, I can understand why they're using the present tense, but it doesn't work as well.)
Picky, picky?
Secondly, "over 14 channels" is, I guess, technically accurate because there are more than that, but wouldn't the correct number be better? Thirdly, perhaps "is sure to be [italics mine] one of the hottest Vodafone live! services" should be changed to "is one of the hottest...."?
After all, after nine months, Vodacom should know whether it's one of the hottest services -- or not imply that it is.
Am I being too picky?
Hit soap opera for mobile TV
I looked at the site because I was reading Variety's article about Vodacom offering Afrikaans-language "Sewende Laan" ("Seventh Avenue" in English), the second most popular soap opera produced locally, for mobile TV subscribers. Vodacom also offers videos that are about two minutes long with information about the show, including gossip, what's coming up next and the thoughts of the characters.
These mobisodes are released after the show ends, the article notes.
Since so many analysts say subscribers won't watch shows for more than a few minutes, it would be interesting to how know successful the soap opera is on mobile TV.
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